Wear Valley

Wear Valley, former district, administrative and historic county of Durham, northeastern England, in the northwestern part of the county. Lying mostly within a section of the Pennines, Wear Valley is predominantly a high, bleak limestone upland, 1,000 to 2,300 feet (305 to 700 metres) in elevation, that descends gradually to the east and is drained from west to east by the River Wear. The upper Wear valley, called Weardale, is confined by steep walls. At the former district’s eastern edge the river emerges from the Pennines onto a less-restricted arable plain 200 to 400 feet (60 to 120 metres) in elevation, where ... (100 of 284 words)